ANN Requests Investigation By DoT IG, US Atty General, and SC SAG Offices

For over 30 years, the staff of Aero-News -- as part of ANN and its prior iterations -- have attempted to practice aggressive investigative journalism when Aviation issues appeared to require such attention.

From the Donald Edwin Jones/Maxair scams of the 1980s to more recent dangers/issues like the David Riggs crimes and the Cirrus Design/Aircraft attacks on a number of aviation persons and business, we have sought to find solutions to issues that have threatened the lives, freedoms, and/or livelihoods of our friends throughout the aviation world.

Over the course of a number of weeks, the ANN editorial staff has been perusing hundreds of pages of documents surrounding the forced closure of a South Carolina aviation business, based at the Grand Strand Airport, by county officials. These actions were based, in part, on highly questionable verbiage/documentation issued by FAA officials that may not be in full possession of the facts involved in this matter. The matter is convoluted, contains a number of questionable statements (including charges of hazards and safety issues by county officials that appear to be highly suspect and based on less than expert knowledge of skydiving operations/hazards), is based (in part) on rules that may not have been in force at the time said rules were reportedly violated, involve a number of entities with curious legal relationships, and contain numerous convoluted, if not contradictory, reports and statements. Most important; the issues raised in this matter have been used to shut down the Skydive Myrtle Beach operation and have put a number of persons associated with that operation out of work.

ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief Jim Campbell is a veteran skydiver that has conducted several thousand skydives and earned both USPA Jumpmaster and Instructor ratings. In calls to SDMB staff, and in calls conducted with a number of SDMB customers and experienced skydivers, as well as with Horry County (SC) Officials, Campbell's decades of skydiving expertise has been utilized to evaluate the credibility of those reporting their experiences with SDMB operations. So far; no major safety issues have been corroborated and a number of respondents with significant skydiving credentials report few credible safety issues of any note -- and nothing of significant import.

However; the alleged safety issues noted by Horry County staffers, as well as some FAA bureaucrats (but not reported to SDMB staff or management until long after the alleged incidents occurred), seem questionable in both credibility as well as context... especially considering the fact that Horry County officials have attempted to demand that SDMB fork over some 24% of its GROSS receipts as part of an updated leasing agreement that, in itself, appears based on shaky ground when compared to prior paperwork generated between HC and SDMB (including an initial leasing agreement that seems to have been curiously discarded by the County in order to get SDMB to sign a more restrictive and expensive agreement).

Attempts to get additional info from airport and county officials have been met (when they haven't been ignored altogether), with obfuscation, contradiction, and some pretty arcane FOIA restrictions -- if not outright refusals for info (including calls that were 'abruptly terminated' by those we attempted to contact at HC or the airport).

The convoluted nature and details of this story appear quite troublesome... and require a credible, objective, expert and unbiased examination of the facts that have driven what appeared to be a successful local aviation operation out of business. While the matter is tremendously complicated, and the county has obviously spent a great deal of money and other resources to drive SDMB out of business, there are simply too many questions and conflicts involved in this matter to allow it to remain uninvestigated... both for the sake of the Skydive Myrtle Beach operation itself, as well as the overall welfare of those aviation businesses throughout the country that have and may continue to face occasional opposition by what appears to be anti-aviation political interests of a local, state or national origin.

As a result, ANN is filing requests with South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson; Calvin Scovel III, the Inspector General of the United States Department of Transportation; and United States Attorney General (A.G.) Loretta Lynch (among others) requesting their immediate attention and investigation of the actions of staff of the Horry Country and Grand Strand Airport administrations and those associated with same, against Skydive Myrtle Beach.

ANN will keep you informed of this matter as it progresses.

FMI: www.skydivemb.com, www.scag.gov, www.oig.dot.gov, www.justice.gov